Why the Carolina Panthers Can Win the NFC South in 2012

Cam Newton (1) is the No. 1 reason Carolina can win the NFC South in 2012.Grant Halverson/Getty Images

The Carolina Panthers have high hopes for the 2012 NFL season, including a Super Bowl prediction by All-Pro center Ryan Kalil, but they cannot simply play for a wild card berth if they expect to reach the playoffs in the loaded National Football Conference.

Instead, the Carolina Panthers will have to win the NFC South in 2012 to ensure their place in the NFL's postseason tournament.

In order to win the NFC South, Carolina will have to beat out the defending division champion New Orleans Saints, the 2010 division winner Atlanta Falcons and an improved Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad that finished 10-6 two seasons ago and started out with a 4-2 record before losing their final 10 games in 2011.

Simply having a winning season in 2012 will be a step in the right direction for a Panthers team that won just two games in 2010.

However, much like the Detroit Lions' resurrection into the playoffs last year after going winless in 2009, Carolina is a young and talented team with high expectations, led by a franchise quarterback in the making and coming off of a strong finish the previous season.

A Loaded Conference

There are at least three teams in each NFC division with postseason aspirations, and only six teams will reach the playoffs, including four division winners and a couple of wild cards.

Outside of the bounty-gate scandal in the Big Easy that resulted in the one-year suspension of Saints coach Sean Payton and linebacker Jonathan Vilma and the indefinite suspension of defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, there is nothing that indicates any of these teams will falter in 2012.

Somehow, it leaves Carolina with an opportunity to jump into the driver's seat early in the season, by playing the Buccaneers, the Saints and the Falcons in three of their first four regular season games.

The Josh-Freeman-led Bucs re-hauled their entire coaching staff in the offseason, after suffering a pair of embarrassing defeats to the Panthers in the midst of their epic 10-game collapse, and they seem a far cry from the team that nearly made the 2010 NFL playoffs.

Mike Smith's Falcons were a cut above the Panthers in 2011, but they suffered demoralizing losses to the Packers and the Giants in the playoffs each of the past two seasons, and they seem to lack the toughness required to become an elite NFL team.

If the Panthers can win at least two of their first three divisional games in September, ideally the season opener at Tampa Bay and in Week 2 hosting New Orleans, a 4-1 record in the NFC South heading into their season finale at the Superdome is not out of reach.

Why the Panthers Can Win the South

This may sound cliche, but the Carolina Panthers can win the NFC South in 2012, because they are the hungriest team in the division.

Carolina's second-year quarterback, Cam Newton, is a winner and he, along with head coach Ron Rivera, has lit a fire that has spread throughout the organization and created a pervasive winning atmosphere that was previously non-existent in the franchise's 17-year history.

The Panthers can win the division, because they are stronger and healthier on defense.